how does Newton's three laws of motion apply to a egg droped from a building?

Question

compphysgeek · Answer

Newton's First Law states that bodies stay at rest or constant motion if there is no force acting on it. When you drop an egg from a building, it clearly does not stay at rest. So we know that there is a force acting on the egg.

The second law says that the force acting on a body with mass m accelerates the body with rate a $$F = ma$$ if we know the egg's mass and can meassure its acceleration, we know the force.

The third law states that if there's a force acting on the egg then there is a second force equal in strength but in opposite direction acting on another body, in this case the earth.

an egg weighs about 100g, its acceleration is 9.81 ms^-2, the strength of the force is roughly 1 kN. Not nearly enough to accelerate the earth noticeably.